In the bakery industry, the handling of baked goods is for the most part carried out by automated modern equipment. The products which are baked are handled by conveyors and other equipment that arranges them in the necessary configuration to be packaged. Automatic packaging machinery then packages the products in individual packages.
Bakery products such as bagels and English muffins are normally packaged in stacks having the individual products arranged face to face. The baked goods are initially conveyed flatly on their faces, and the need to stack them face to face requires equipment that can arrange the individual products face to face on edge. In addition, the orientation of the individual products in the packages can vary in different packages. For example, if the product has a flat side, some packages may be required to have the flat sides all facing in the same direction, while other packages may have the flat sides facing in one direction on half the package and in the opposite direction on the other half of the package. Other packages may require the products to be arranged in pairs, with the flat sides facing each other in each pair. Because of these different packaging requirements, the equipment that handles the bakery products and arranges them in groups of the proper configuration to be packaged must exhibit considerable flexibility.